Drunk Driving Cases
Attorney William C. Head

Case 13
State v. R.G.
State Court of Atlanta, GA

Defendant, a local attorney, rear-ended a Jaguar on I-285 in North Fulton County in August of 1995. No one in either car was seriously injured. The case was first investigated by a regular patrol officer who (after administering field tests) made a determination that the Fulton County driver was intoxicated. She handcuffed him and was soon joined by a DUI Task Force officer.

The second officer was a DUI training officer and had a specially-equipped vehicle, which had video and audio recording equipment. The tape showed the client trying to perform several field tests and failing all miserably. Even the ABC’s were beyond his ability.

R.G. refused a blood test at Northside Hospital. The State would later argue that was understandable, since this was a THIRD offense in five years. Due to his prior record, the best offer from the State for a plea of "guilty" was six months to serve in jail.

Pre-trial motions resulted in one pre-trial appeal seeking to dismiss the case on a technicality. Although this appeal prior to trial did not cause dismissal of the case, other pre-trial motions resulted in the following:

(1) Exclusion of the second officer’s entire video and audio tape;
(2) Exclusion of any mention of field sobriety testing by the second (highly trained) officer;
(3) Exclusion of any mention of R.G.’s alleged "refusal" to submit to a blood test.

After 38 months of battling and negotiating with the state, the case was called for trial on October 7, 1998. As a result of the elimination of almost all of the State’s evidence, the DUI charge was dismissed entirely. The "following too close" charge was "merged" into a new charge of "reckless driving". Because Georgia does not suspend licenses on reckless driving charges, no license suspension occurred. Fines totaled $1,150, but the client did not serve any jail time at all, and had no community service to perform.

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